Jay-Z

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JAY-Z

Born: Sean Carter; Brooklyn, New York, 4 December 1971

Genre: Hip-Hop

Hit songs since 1990: "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)," "Can I Get a . . ."

Jay-Z began his career in the early 1990s as a sideman to more prominent artists and ended the decade as one of hip-hop's most popular rappers. He has replaced the violence and poverty associated with his childhood home—the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, New York—with a self-made image of opulent excess and material wealth. Though talented as a lyricist, both in his evocative story-telling abilities and in his clever writing skills, Jay-Z's greatest asset has been his charisma. Like his peer, the Notorious B.I.G., the alternately seductive and sinister Jay-Z exudes confidence and charm in his music.

While still in his teens, Sean Carter was mentored by a Brooklyn MC, Jaz, who gave the younger artist the moniker of Jay-Z as a diminutive of his own name. Jaz's own career stalled out by the early 1990s, despite modest hits such as "Hawaiian Sophie," which features Jay-Z. For the first half of the 1990s, Jay-Z appeared as a cameo guest on other artists' songs, most prominently Original Flavor's "Can I Get Open?" and Mic Geronimo's "Train of Thought," but it was not until 1995 that Jay-Z released his own single, "In My Lifetime." However, the song was not a success, and Jay-Z languished in industry invisibility until his decision to start his own label, Roc-A-Fella, and restart his career as an independent artist.

The first single Roc-A-Fella released was "Dead Presidents" (1996). The song was a modest success, but it was the single's b-side, "Ain't No Nigga," which included a then-unknown Foxy Brown, that became Jay-Z's runaway hit. "Ain't No Nigga" interpolates two elements already familiar to fans of R&B and hip-hop: the bass line from the Whole Darn Family's "Seven Minutes of Funk" and a chorus based on the R&B hit "Ain't No Woman." Rather than sing platitudes to his paramour, Jay-Z turns "Ain't No Nigga" into a celebration of sex, money, and fashion with lines such as "Fresh to def in Moschino, Coach bag / Lookin' half black and Filipino."

First Albums

The immense success of "Ain't No Nigga" led to the release of Jay-Z's debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996). Though Reasonable Doubt is not Jay-Z's best-selling album, critics laud it as his most compelling. The key to that critical praise lies in how Jay-Z simultaneously celebrates his material success while moralizing on his excess.

For example, like his peer, the Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z plays up his past as a drug pusher, celebrating the lifestyle on the album's "Can't Knock the Hustle." At the same time, songs like "D'Evils" and "Regrets" reflect Jay-Z's awareness of the spiritual cost of his underworld aspirations. This duality imbues Jay-Z's music with a complexity that distinguishes him from other rappers who also rhyme about their wealth but do not admit the price paid.

Jay-Z's next two albums, In My Lifetime Vol. 1 (1997) and Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life (1998), were commercial successes but were coolly received by critics. These works were criticized for containing formulaic pop hits rather than career-advancing material save for the unlikely hit title track from Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem), which samples the chorus from the Broadway musical Annie.

It took until Vol. 3: The Life and Times of S. Carter (1999) for Jay-Z to return to form. Unlike the previous two albums, The Life and Times of S. Carter finds Jay-Z lording over his competition with sweeping street narratives and outrageous displays of bravado. Producer Timbaland makes a prominent contribution to the album thanks to his funky minimalism, and Jay-Z does his part by minting another pop anthem with the exotically flavored "Big Pimpin." He attacks with fierce braggadocio on songs like "Come and Get Me": "Ignorant bastard, I'm takin' it back to day one / No kids, but trust me I know how to raise a gun."

In 2001 Jay-Z released The Blueprint (2001), which was both a financial and critical triumph. Lyrically, The Blueprint covers familiar ground for Jay-Z—weapons, women, wealth—but his production team, led by Just Blaze and Kayne West, engineered one of the best-sounding hip-hop albums of the year.

Tapping into soul music samples from the 1970s, Blaze and West create a soundtrack that is comforting and familiar, an unintentionally appropriate tone given the macabre coincidence that The Blueprint was released on September 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

Public Controversies

The Blueprint coincided with Jay-Z's growing popularity and attendant coverage in the mass media, fueled by interest in an alleged stabbing incident involving Jay-Z and a rap industry executive. Jay-Z made a great deal of this situation, even building it into The Blueprint 's major hit, "Izzo," "Not guilty / ya'll got to feel me." Ironically, in 2002 Jay-Z pled guilty to the charge and was given probation. During this time Jay-Z also carried on a public battle with the rival rapper Nas, both of whom drafted songs and made radio appearances in which they attacked each other.

Spot Light: "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)"

few could have predicted it, but one of the major summer smashes of 1998 featured a broadway musical chorus mixed into a hip-hop hit. unlike previous rap songs that sampled from well-known soul or funk songs, "hard knock life (ghetto anthem)" drew from the unlikely source of annie: the musical. producer 45 king looped part of the piano melody from annie, but he also used the song's main chorus, making "hard knock life (ghetto anthem)" instantly recognizable and memorable. jay-z uses this playful platform as a backdrop for lyrics that both praise his own greatness but also give a nod to all the hard luck cases out there, from "all my niggas / locked down in the ten by four," to "chicks wishin', they ain't have to strip to pay tuition." on the strength of its wide-ranging appeal, the song quickly catapulted its way up the pop charts. combined with jay-z's other memorable anthems of the time, "can i get a . . ." and "money ain't a thing," the song made hard knock life (ghetto anthem) one of jay-z's best-selling albums. an altered version of the song appears in the 2002 movie austin powers in goldmember.

Rather than stemming his popularity, these incidents only inflated Jay-Z's public prominence, which was further enhanced by an August 2001 profile in The New Yorker and a November 2002 appearance on 60 Minutes II. The same month Jay-Z released The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse, his first double-album. Despite its aspirations to match the excellence of its predecessor, The Blueprint 2 is a bloated affair of anemic production and grating martyrdom.

For most of his career, Jay-Z has lived in the shadow of the Notorious B.I.G. Had Biggie not been murdered in 1997, it is quite possible that the two would have ended up as rivals for the title of Brooklyn's finest, but Biggie's death vacated a throne to which Jay-Z has paid homage. At times, Jay-Z's stature as one of rap's greatest talents has seemed secure. However, artistic inconsistencies and a penchant for public controversy have shadowed his legacy.